Count It
“Count it, again.”
“I did that ten times.”
It was rather a good day in California. The weather was just nice and warm, there was no traffic sound whatsoever and a bunch of people just got the money they needed for travelling after a year of working.
“Are you fucking sure?”
“We finally made it.”
“Guys,” Jean Fisher smiled as she took a seat around the round wooden table. “Let’s not panic, okay? We did make it, but we have to think thoroughly. What are we going to do with our jobs? I mean, come on, there is still life after this, you know.”
“Jean,” said the blonde haired girl, sitting across the brunette. “You are right, but stop.”
“But, Kimberly-“
“No buts, this is just for summer, anyway,” Kimberly Watson added. “We have a whole life ahead of us and the jobs were temporary, you know that.”
“I know,” the brunette protested. “I just… It doesn’t make sense to spend it all on vacation all of a sudden, that’s all.”
“Fuck, I knew one of you would bring this up,” Brandon Williams groaned, shaking his head disapprovingly. “We made a fucking deal and we made it clear that the money is going to be spent on travelling, Jean, don’t be a party pooper.”
“Okay, okay,” a black haired girl cut in, her hand resting on Jean’s shoulder for support. “It is normal for her to have second thoughts, this is a great amount of money, you guys. But we can’t back off now, this is a great opportunity.”
“Ava is right,” a tall, blonde guy added as he ripped off the name tag that said ‘Rick’, which he was wearing for his job. “We are going, end of the discussion.”
Ava Parker smiled and opened the cover of the small, blue notebook next to the money. It looked like a basic notebook, with ‘Places’ written on it and a small, simple heart drawing. She looked at the first page and read it out loud for her friends. “Travel, not for the eye, but for the soul.”
“And for the girls,” Brandon muttered with a smirk.
“And to see La Liga for real,” added Rick Barton and gave his friend a high five.
“And to find myself a handsome Eduardo.”
“Amen, Kimberly, amen,” Jean laughed out loud. “I can use a Felipé, too.”
“Or a Chavez.”
“And a Diego.”
Ava rolled her eyes, though a small smirk was playing on her lips. “Okay, can I have a Léon? Or a Javier?”
“Oh, anything you want.”
“And they say men are perverts,” Rick narrowed his blue eyes. “All we can think about is whether we can get a fucking photograph with Lionel Messi and they are thinking of banging a Hispanic dude.”
“Okay,” the black haired woman held the notebook in the air. “Who wants to know our first destination?”
“God, please let it be Ukraine.”
“Damn it, Brandon, let it be fucking Spain,” Rick cut off. “I want to see some Eva Mendez.”
“Who’s talking now?” Kimberly shook her head, fingers crossed behind her back.
“It will be Arabia and all you’ll be seeing will be Fatima’s,” Jean stuck out her tongue at her friend.
“God, please don’t let it be Arabia, yet.”
Ava read the second page of the blue notebook, where they had written down their destinations one by one when they first thought of the idea. Decorated with images found on Google and some cheap glitters, she read it out loud with excitement. “Guys, we are going to France.”
They all exclaimed happily and felt the sudden feeling of relief rushing down their bodies. It wasn’t Arabia now, but it was Arabia someday. They wondered why they even put that in the notebook in the first place, but it could be arranged anyway. They could always go to Egypt, instead.
They spent the next hour calling their friend, Stacey, from the travel agency to get them the most affordable plane tickets and hotel bookings. They had the money, but that didn’t necessarily mean they could spend it for anything they wanted. They had a whole summer in front of them and they had to make a plan to use it in the most useful way.
That very night, they called their bosses from the temporary jobs to quit. It didn’t go smoothly, but they did not expect anything different, anyway. They signed up knowing what would happen in the end and they signed up exactly for it.
Ava zipped up her luggage and stared at it dreamily, it was a big, red one with her name tag placed on it. She knew it was all she had dreamed since she was a little child and finally witnessing that she was achieving it on her early 20’s made her a winner.
She fixed her black leggings and stretched her legs as she stared in the mirror. She wasn’t exactly tall, she could even be called petite with her nearly average height. Her black, wavy hair was reaching down to her back and matching her dark brown eyes.
Another feminine figure caught her attention in the mirror and she smiled at her friend’s reflection. Jean was sleeping in the bed next to hers, curling her knees up to her chest and a happy smile on her lips. Her straight brown hair was pulled into a ponytail tightly as she made a stirring sound.
With one final glance at the mirror, she left her bedroom that she was sharing with Jean and went downstairs –only to find no one in the first floor. It was two in the morning and she didn’t feel tired at all from all the excitement.
She took a seat in the kitchen counter and made herself a filter coffee with milk. It was a great chance that they found plane tickets the very next morning. For the first time in their lives, the chance was on their side.
“Thought you were sleeping.”
She shrieked lightly, her frown was replaced with a genuine smile afterwards. Brandon was always a late sleeper, she was even curious at times that he didn’t sleep at all. She, on the other hand, loved sleeping. “I don’t sleep early, thought you knew that.”
“Yeah, I know,” he began, attempting to make himself a coffee. “But with all the travel plans and shit, I thought you would be the first one sleeping with a smile on her face.”
She chuckled and took a sip from her coffee. “I had been dreaming of this for so long, it doesn’t seem real to me now.”
Brandon opened the drawer and grabbed some M&M’s, offering her some as he spoke. “As if it’s not going to happen? Been there, but we actually have tickets, so have some rest,” he added as his phone rang a couple of times and he silenced it in the exact moment he saw the caller ID. Letting out a loud sigh, he shrugged his shoulders at Ava, who had been giving him a suspicious eye.
She furrowed her eyebrows at him, pulling her black hair into a ponytail. “Oh, you are such a mess, you know that? She is sad, you two broke up last week. What do you expect her to do, anyway?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Well, we might have been broken up a few hours ago.”
“Are you kidding me?” She shook her head, her jaw dropping. “You, asshole.”
“What? She showed up at my workplace a few days ago,” he said, hands in the air in defense. “Also, do you have any idea how good she is in bed? And I didn’t even mention that she gives great head.”
“Oh, my god,” she exclaimed. “I don’t wanna hear it, pervert.”
“Ava, don’t act like you never tell me these stories.”
“Yeah, but I don’t talk about giving heads.”
“You should.”
“Fuck you.”
He chuckled and brushed off his black hair back with his fingers, it was shoulder length. The dark shade of his hair exposed his green eyes, which she thought it was the only feature in his face that actually repressed his personality. Besides that, he looked like a regular type of criminal.
He was very much like her other friends; young, energetic and dying to learn new things. However, despite his cold and distant look, thanks to his lean body shape and blank stare, he was secretly a caring person.
She watched as he lifted a cigarette and let it rest on his bottom lip while he searched for a lighter in his pocket. She knew that he was a smoker, they had been very close friends for a few years, but he was a serious smoker now and she was tired to tell him to quit whenever he lit a cigarette.
“You’re staring.”
“Because you are getting deeper into that shit, everyday.”
“I know.”
He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. It was the burning feeling in his throat that made it harder for him to quit smoking, he liked that feeling. It was just that burn at the moment and he liked not thinking about anything else.
Brandon pulled up the zip on his black hoodie and tilted his head towards the garden, offering to go outside since it was house rules not to smoke indoors. “Take your coffee, let’s sit outside.”
“Sure, I want to hear about all the useless stuff you packet in your suitcase.”
As both headed to the garden, Jean woke up upstairs with a mumbling by her side. She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. Come on, everyone knew she loved a good sleep, which involved minimum eight hours of sleeping.
“Jeanie, wake up.”
It took a moment for her to clear her vision before sitting up slowly. “Kim?”
Kimberly muttered positively and sat back in her friend’s back, nudging Jean by the leg. “Wake up”
“What’s up? Did something happen?”
“Yeah, I can’t sleep.”
Jean groaned and let her body fell back to the pillow, but woke up again by Kimberly’s instant nudging. She pulled her legs up to her belly and tried to ignore her until it became impossible for her to do so. “Well, what can I do to help, Kim?” she asked eventually, sounding helpful, yet, irritated.
“You can tell me that it will be the best decision of our lives,” the blonde muttered, playing with her long nails. “You can tell me that… we all will find ourselves in this trip, literally, of course.”
Jean sighed softly and sat up, resting her back on the wall. “It will be, Kim, you already know that.”
“But what if it’s a waste of time?” she blinked blankly. “I mean, I know that I spoke very sure of myself today, but I’ve been thinking since we bought the tickets… It’s just, what if everything goes bad? What if we run out of money or something? All of our families are here and-“
“Dear, god, Kimberly,” the brunette laughed lightly. “It will be fine and we will have so much fun. You helped me to think positively, come on. If anything goes bad, we turn back. If we run out of money, we just… work or find a plan there. Don’t be anxious, it’s very unlike you.”
“I know,” she smiled. “It will be my first time, did you know that?”
“What, first time going abroad?”
“Yeah, besides all the worry and everything, I’m literally dying to see Paris.”
Jean fixed the sleep band on her forehead and returned her smile with a giggle. “Don’t worry, you’ll find a hot Spanish guy and have him attend this trip with us for the rest of the travel, we will take great pictures and you will post them on Instagram.”
Kimberly exclaimed happily and lay on the bed, her medium length blonde hair resting messily around her. “Will you find a guy, yourself, too?”
“Yeah, why not? I will find a Pierré.”
“A French, huh?”
“Yes, with a mustache.”
“Nice,” the blonde smiled and sat up. “Where is Ava?”
“Probably drinking some tea,” Jean stretched her arms above her head and placed herself into the sheets again, poking her friend with her leg. “We’re all excited, but I need sleep, girl.”
“Okay, okay, I’m going to sleep, too,” Kimberly nodded, also stretching her body when she got on her feet. “Thanks for the talk, Jeanie.”
“Anytime, love.”
The brunette pulled down her sleep band as she heard her bedroom door closing. She wasn’t sure if everything she had said to Kimberly was right, but it was a vacation after all. A vacation that all of them had been working their butts off for. They could always work something out if something went bad or something.
An hour later, the house went silent as everyone was asleep peacefully. All of them dreamed of places that they have never been and people they have never seen, but it felt familiar whatsoever. And eventually, their alarms went off and they opened their eyes with excitement.
It was beginning.
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